You may earn a maximum of 3 points toward your final grade by doing the above and answering the questions and submitting them on time (no later than Friday, September 1). Any worksheets submitted after the deadline will get a 0. You will be rewarded a maximum of 3 points if I judge your work to be above average. You will receive 2 points if your work is average, that is it may have a few minor mistakes in some of the answers but demonstrates correct grammar and indicates that some, but not all, of the answers, are acceptable and well expressed. You will earn only 1 point if you simply answered the questions and/or if you use poor grammar and if there are signs that you have not read the material on which your answers are based.
1. In the space below, describe the stasis at the beginning of Wedding Band. In other words, “Where are we?” “When is it (time, day, and year)?” “Who are the people involved?” “What is the dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves as the play unfolds?”
It is summer of 1918 the play begins on a Saturday in a South Carolina city by the sea. The characters are Julia Augustine a new resident in the backyard that has the houses and yard the play is set in. Owner and landlady is Fanny Johnson and Julia's neighbors are Mattie and her daughter Teeta and Lula and her adopted son Nelson. Also n the play is Herman, Julia's white lover, Princess the white child Mattie babysits, Herman's sister Annabelle and their mother. The final character is the white door-to-door salesman known as the Bellman.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play? NOTE: Arguments might be made for several different points where stasis is broken. Be prepared to defend your point of view, if different from other students.
The intrusion is when Herman falls out at the end of Act 1 from influenza.
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place?
This is the day that Julia moves into her new place, her and Herman's 10 year anniversary, and the day he falls ill of influenza.
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.)
The dramatic question is, can the relationship of Julia Augustine and Herman ever work despite fate being against them?
5. Use Julia to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, that is the dramatic actions that are taken by that character. Examine what the character wants (NOTE: In Wedding Band the wants of Julia are in flux. They change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual or individuals, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that demonstrate these obstacles in the play.
Three obstacles in this play are man vs society (Herman's mother & sister and the anti-misgency law), man vs nature (influenza), and man vs man (Julia vs Herman). At first, Julia just wants to stop running from people who may have her arrest for being with her white lover and just to live normally as husband and wife in the north, then after he falls ill, recites the speech, and his mother comes she wants nothing to do with Herman and to be live a carefree life. After Herman come to Julia again a lot worse fore wear and they scream their emotions and feelings at each other and make up, she just wants to spend his last moments with her husband and to help her new found family Mattie and Teeta make a decent life for themselves.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Wedding Band.
The most theatrical moments of the play is when Herman recites Calhoun's speech and then kicks him out and the most theatrical moment is the screaming match that ends with the rejoining of the characters ending with Hermans death from influenza.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Wedding Band. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
One strong image in the play is the wedding band, symbolizing love, sisterhood, and hope for a better future. Another images is of the the setting, the backyard. This is symbolizes the secret/hidden nature of their relationship and the public's unwillingness to deal with it. The final image in the play is of the 25 cent coin. It is of monetary value, but more importantly is hold the value of new friendship an community.
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Wedding Band.
There are themes of racism, loneliness, prejudice, xenophobia, patriotism, segregation, and family.
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with the dramatic action in Wedding Band? Perhaps you might argue for several different kinds of family in this particular play. What do you think?
In relation to Julia and Herman, family is the reason that they are driven apart and the reason they are able to come back together. Herman's family, his mother in particular, was a driving force in putting a wedge between the two even going as far as coming in Julia's home and insulting her. The reason that Herman and Julia can make it work at the end is that despite all of their fighting they are family and they love each other very much. They other form of family that drives the play is the found family Juloia has with Mattie, Tette, and Lula. They are her support network and when things go rough with Herman they were there for her and without that help, the play may have ended with Julia and Herman never getting back together.
India Hodo
You may earn a maximum of 3 points toward your final grade by doing the above and answering the questions and submitting them on time (no later than Friday, September 1). Any worksheets submitted after the deadline will get a 0.
You will be rewarded a maximum of 3 points if I judge your work to be above average. You will receive 2 points if your work is average, that is it may have a few minor mistakes in some of the answers but demonstrates correct grammar and indicates that some, but not all, of the answers, are acceptable and well expressed. You will earn only 1 point if you simply answered the questions and/or if you use poor grammar and if there are signs that you have not read the material on which your answers are based.
1. In the space below, describe the stasis at the beginning of Wedding Band. In other words, “Where are we?” “When is it (time, day, and year)?” “Who are the people involved?” “What is the dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves as the play unfolds?”
It is summer of 1918 the play begins on a Saturday in a South Carolina city by the sea. The characters are Julia Augustine a new resident in the backyard that has the houses and yard the play is set in. Owner and landlady is Fanny Johnson and Julia's neighbors are Mattie and her daughter Teeta and Lula and her adopted son Nelson. Also n the play is Herman, Julia's white lover, Princess the white child Mattie babysits, Herman's sister Annabelle and their mother. The final character is the white door-to-door salesman known as the Bellman.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play? NOTE: Arguments might be made for several different points where stasis is broken. Be prepared to defend your point of view, if different from other students.
The intrusion is when Herman falls out at the end of Act 1 from influenza.
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place?
This is the day that Julia moves into her new place, her and Herman's 10 year anniversary, and the day he falls ill of influenza.
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.)
The dramatic question is, can the relationship of Julia Augustine and Herman ever work despite fate being against them?
5. Use Julia to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, that is the dramatic actions that are taken by that character. Examine what the character wants (NOTE: In Wedding Band the wants of Julia are in flux. They change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual or individuals, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that demonstrate these obstacles in the play.
Three obstacles in this play are man vs society (Herman's mother & sister and the anti-misgency law), man vs nature (influenza), and man vs man (Julia vs Herman). At first, Julia just wants to stop running from people who may have her arrest for being with her white lover and just to live normally as husband and wife in the north, then after he falls ill, recites the speech, and his mother comes she wants nothing to do with Herman and to be live a carefree life. After Herman come to Julia again a lot worse fore wear and they scream their emotions and feelings at each other and make up, she just wants to spend his last moments with her husband and to help her new found family Mattie and Teeta make a decent life for themselves.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Wedding Band.
The most theatrical moments of the play is when Herman recites Calhoun's speech and then kicks him out and the most theatrical moment is the screaming match that ends with the rejoining of the characters ending with Hermans death from influenza.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Wedding Band. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
One strong image in the play is the wedding band, symbolizing love, sisterhood, and hope for a better future. Another images is of the the setting, the backyard. This is symbolizes the secret/hidden nature of their relationship and the public's unwillingness to deal with it. The final image in the play is of the 25 cent coin. It is of monetary value, but more importantly is hold the value of new friendship an community.
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Wedding Band.
There are themes of racism, loneliness, prejudice, xenophobia, patriotism, segregation, and family.
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with the dramatic action in Wedding Band? Perhaps you might argue for several different kinds of family in this particular play. What do you think?
In relation to Julia and Herman, family is the reason that they are driven apart and the reason they are able to come back together. Herman's family, his mother in particular, was a driving force in putting a wedge between the two even going as far as coming in Julia's home and insulting her. The reason that Herman and Julia can make it work at the end is that despite all of their fighting they are family and they love each other very much. They other form of family that drives the play is the found family Juloia has with Mattie, Tette, and Lula. They are her support network and when things go rough with Herman they were there for her and without that help, the play may have ended with Julia and Herman never getting back together.